We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.Conservative Party risk losing agenda in Europe – Kendall
PETER Kendall, NFU president, has challenged the Conservative Party to reconcile their perceived anti-EU stance with the need to engage constructively in Brussels to develop agricultural policy to suit British interests.
Speaking to Farmers Guardian at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester last night, Mr Kendall said the ‘noises coming from the conference hall’ about Europe could make it difficult for the Shadow Defra team to win friends and drive the agricultural agenda in Europe.
“Because so much of our agricultural fabric is designed in Europe we need a strong voice there. But if the Conservative Party is going to push the European agenda they need to find a way of reconciling the noise that is coming from this conference with the image that is received in Brussels.
“As things stand, if you listen to the views on the Lisbon Treaty, the referendum and our future in Europe, it could make it difficult to make friends there.
“There is an image, right or wrong, that the Conservatives are getting further away from Europe which would make their job to reform the CAP or pre-empt agricultural policy more challenging if they were to win power.”
However, Nick Herbert, Shadow Defra Secretary, said he ‘strongly rejects’ the premise that the Tories were moving further away from Europe.
“We want to see a reformed, outward looking Europe but that does not mean we don’t want to engage in formulating EU policy and it does not mean we cannot engage robustly and constructively in the national interest and interests of agriculture,” he said